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Lauren

Session 4 Discussion Post

Participatory culture stresses the role of students as creators, circulators, connectors, and collaborators, rather than simply consumers, of media. Students participate in the creation and circulation of media content within social networks that extend from their circle of face-to-face friends to a larger virtual community. Students need to both make and reflect upon media and in the process, acquire important skills in teamwork, leadership, problem solving, collaboration, brainstorming, communications, and creating projects. The project identifies some of the core social skills and cultural competencies that students need to acquire if they are going to be full participants in this new media environment. According to Jenkins et al. (2006) “fostering such social skills and cultural competencies requires a more systemic approach to media education” (p. 4). It is not clear if there are any effective practices yet for teaching these skills. At my school (Susanna), we had to stop letting 5th grade students take home their iPads because they weren’t able to manage the distraction and responsibility. I keep coming back to wondering if developmentally, kids who are 10 years old just aren’t ready to be holding a device that powerful and asked to resist all the distracting aspects of it. (ie. Don't play with this toy we have given you). On the other hand, perhaps there are means for teaching the necessary skills that our school has not yet implemented.

The educational system plays a major role on students’ ability to become full participants in the emerging media culture. According Jenkins et al. (2006) “before students can engage with the new participatory culture, they must be able to read and write” (p. 19). Therefore, in order to be literate in today’s media-rich environments, students need to develop knowledge, values and a whole range of critical thinking, communication and information management skills for the digital age. This is not a question of a shifting of essential skills for students as much as it is an expansion of the essential skills students will need to succeed in the 21st century.

Guiding Questions:

• How can educators effectively leverage the activities happening in popular culture contexts to improve teaching?

• What changes are needed in teaching practices to facilitate a culture of  participatory learners?

Jenkins (2015) comments that Turkle noted to him the pressure of trying to give the black and white answers that society wants. Through engaging and participating in these online cultures it could demonstrate to and teach students that simple answers are frequently a myth. Rarely is the answer to a question or problem black and white. It reminds me (Christina) of the debate that raged when the child fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati zoo and the zoo keepers decided to kill the gorilla. As my students discussed the event all of them had very definite views: the zoo keepers did the right thing or not. Some said that the gorilla should not have been shot, but they were not considering if the child had been seriously hurt. This can be linked to the common theme from above of ensuring the students are critical of the media they are coming into contact with.

Jenkins (2015) noted a Winston Churchill quote favored by Turkle, “We make our buildings, and in turn, our buildings make and shape us.”  I believe this is how we as educators need to view our students relationship with technology.  We, the educators, need to assist our students as they make and create content via technology and make sure that the technology is having a positive effect and help. We need to help students understand that most of the answers to life’s important questions are varying shades of grey and it can change based on perspective and changing cultural aspects of life both in virtual and actual reality.

Guiding Questions:

• Are these participatory cultures good learning environments?

Benefits and Risks of Participating:

Benefit: One of the benefits of participating in an online community is that you broaden your knowledge to include opinions and perspectives of others from around the world.  One of the primary reasons I chose the online EdD program (Lauren) at JHU is that I wanted to meet educators from across the country and the world.  I am very familiar with the network of educators in the area where I live.  This program has allowed me to meet and learn from people who are practicing in different settings and areas than I am.  Our program is a participatory culture in which we share our thinking and questions on various topics from the courses.  The different expectations of each course shape the tone of the culture.  In some classes, the discussions have been more formal, with citations required and emphasis on incorporating content from the readings.  In other classes, like this one, the discussions have been less formal, which in my opinion leads to more creative thinking.

Risk: One of the risks of participating in an online community is that you are making yourself vulnerable.  Everything you write, submit, or post is out there - and you can’t take it back.  You create your digital footprint each step of the way.  Also, if you are not careful, the tone of what you write can be misinterpreted.  Early on in our program, I think people overcompensated for this fear by being overly polite.  We were very reluctant to disagree with each other about the course content or even challenge each other to think differently.  The risk of online participation (without the video conferencing) is that words can only say so much without the human face behind them.  Another risk is if you do not witness the effect your words have on others a writer can become detached and lose insight into the positive and negative effects words can have.  I have always disagreed with the old adage, “sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt me”.  I think we realize now that words can and do hurt and the damage can last much longer than the time it takes for a bone to heal.  The risk that I am referring to is with respect to cyber bullying and other negative online practices.

Guiding Questions:

• How can educators best understand the impact that technologies are having on today's youth and use that to facilitate formal or informal participatory environment?

Concluding Thought:  How are you supporting these standards for creating knowledge constructors?  https://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016

References

Jenkins, H. (2013, May 7). Henry Jenkins on participatory culture (Big thinkers series). [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/1gPm-c1wRsQ

Jenkins, H. (2014, January 20). The influence of participatory culture on education. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/HYbSD_GdkjU

Jenkins, H. (2015). "Does this technology serve human purposes?": A "necessary conversation" with Sherry Turkle. In P. Svensson & D. T. Goldberg (Eds.), Between humanities and the digital (69-81). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robinson, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF